It May Seem Crazy, but It Just Might Work

by LarryElfin

Desc: Science Fiction Story: We didn't know where the Leonids came from. We weren't sure what they wanted. All we really knew was that we were enslaved to their power. We had one last hope.

When the Leonids came into our world we didn't have any idea where they had come from. They appeared late in November as the annual meteor shower called the Leonids put in its appearance, and so some scientist somewhere called them Leonids.

They were not anything like lions, of course. They were, in fact, more like rabbits in appearance. If you can imagine a rabbit with no ears and eight legs and no fur. They did have a sort of face but it had no expression whatsoever that we as humans could discern. Basically all we knew about them was this appearance of theirs during the Leonid showers and their physical appearance.

And, of course, their effect upon us. We were defeated and conquered within hours.

Every major city in the world had Leonids appear in the offices or homes of the local leaders. The political, military, financial, and media leaders. They instantly had the effect of turning these folks into groveling slaves, and any person who came within a certain, unknown distance fell under the same power.

Of course the remaining billions of people were ready to fight against this onslaught from another world or dimension. But we soon found that they had arrived with a certain device that allowed them complete security in any building they had appeared in.

It was a box like object, of course. Aren't they all. But its function seemed to be to form a force field around the building or place of whatever kind a Leonid was in. It appeared with them and then protected them from all attacks from the outside.

We tried. Every military force on Earth attempted to destroy them even if it meant destroying the people they had enthralled. It never worked. Field artillery, small arms, drone missiles, even cruise missiles had no effect except to play havoc with the area surrounding the Leonids. The use of atomics was ruled out. It was thought, with some validity, that the destruction would be worse for us than for them.

At least it was ruled out by the vast majority of existing governments and militaries. One country did attempt to destroy the Leonids in their center in the city of Pyongyang. That one nation attempted to drop a nuclear device on the Leonids there. What was left of the city was uninhabitable for decades after that. The Leonid stronghold was not disturbed.

After the initial invasion the indoctrinations began. The leaders and their followers carried out with them some Aura instilled by the Leonids and used this power to compel others to place themselves before the Leonids and become completely enslaved. Then they would continue outside to do the same.

It took only a few weeks for most of the people, with the most power outside, to be under the power of the Leonids. The Leonids seemed to not care about the masses of people out there who had not been enslaved. They just were concerned with the movers and shakers, so to speak.

These power brokers still wielded great power and they knew how to use it. And use it they did, for the benefit of the Leonids. And, of course, they had help from the inevitable traitors, concerned only with their own comfort and benefit. Soon all the mechanisms of society were under their control, as they had been before, of course, only now it was for the benefit of the Leonids.

The entry of these Compelled Ones, as we named them, into the structures occupied by the Leonids was through a simple portal that had sentries of enslaved men guarding it. They had apparently been instructed to allow in all the Compelled Ones and their new recruits who had fell under the power of their Aura.

Oh, it was fairly simple to capture these enslaved ones, but they either sent out the aura and compelled even more to present themselves to the Leonids, or they died, begging to be allowed back to the Masters.

We had no idea if the creatures were male or female, or something completely beyond our comprehension. In fact, our description of them came to us only from enslaved people who were attempting to extol the grandeur of their Masters. We will just use that word for simplicity.

About seven weeks after the initial invasion those still able to put up a resistance started to notice something. Once in a long while one of the followers compelled to enter the presence of the Leonids would come out the same way they went in, with only the slight initial Aura compulsion from the Compelled One. But without the full blown Compelling endowed by the Leonids.

Upon closer examination by the doctors and scientists still working with the resistance it was determined that these few people were actually suffering from various forms of mental illness.

They were isolated and it was found that most had been controlling their conditions, and in many instances, masking them with medications. Some had been important lights in all of the walks of life, including finance and politics, but the majority were common folk like most of the resistance.

With the invasion had come a complete disruption of the movements of goods and services of modern life. These poor souls had not been able to get their medicines and were reverting to their initial mental conditions with all the unfortunate consequences.

There was no indication the Leonids realized they had not enslaved these few unfortunates. Or perhaps they were more fortunate then we realized at first. They were suffering with their mental problems, but they were free of the Leonids indoctrination. They were essentially free people even after going before the Masters. How could we use this to our advantage?

It was discovered that many of these few fortunates were ex-military. When we were able to use our combined resources to obtain the medications they needed to function properly around regular folks they were desperate to do anything to help their species repel the monstrosities that were enslaving the world slowly but surely.